881 
865 
py 1 



E. MOERILL'S 



? 



ENTLEMEN S 



MEDICAL ADVISER 



GUIDE TO HEALTH, 

&c. &c. 



PRICE, TWENTY-FIVE CENTS. 




PRINTED FOR AND PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, WHO 

MAY BE CONSULTED DAILY AT HIS OFFICE, 

NO. 48 HOWARD STREET, 

BOSTON, MASS. 

1869. 






(pi 

THE 



'MfO, (S 



Gentleman's Medical Adviser, 

AND 

SURE GUIDE TO HEALTH 

AND 

LO^G LIFE. 

DESIGNED TO ILLUSTRATE THE AUTHOR'S 

NEW SYSTEM 

OF 

BOTANICAL PRACTICE 

IN THE CUREOF ALLDISEASES INCIDENT TO EXPOSURE, 
EARLY INDISCRETIONS, ETC, 




^ PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, 

WHO MAY BE CONSULTED DAILY AT HIS OFFICE, 
NO. 48 HOWARD STREET, 

BOSTON, MASS. 

1869, 



5>N 



- ^ 
^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 
18(59, by 

FREDERIC MORRILL, M.D. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massa- 
chusetts. 



THE GENTLEMAN'S 

MEDICAL ADVISER 



PART FIRST. 

MANY years ago, when I first entered upon 
my professional career, in the city of Bos- 
ton, as a new and comparatively unknown candi- 
date for distinction and success, I found time to 
^compile several medical treatises bearing upon a 
certain class of diseases always greatly prevalent 
in our large cities* These works, the fruits of care- 
ful study and investigation, contrary to any ex- 
pectations which I had dared to form, became at 
once exceedingly popular, and edition after edi- 
tion was rapidly exhausted. Whilst they served 
in part to give publicity to my name, as one par- 
ticularly devoted to the treatment of diseases 
arising from imprudence and exposure, and all 
other complaints of the genital organs, the ex- 
tensive range of study and examination of ail- 



4 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

thoiities and cases necessary to prepare me to 
discuss the subject properly and intelligibly, 
almost unconsciously to myself, created that in- 
terest in my mind as to induce me to select that 
branch of medical science as a specialty, and to 
make it the leading object of my future investi- 
gations. Finding myself thus theoretically and 
practically prepared to combat these dread ene- 
mies of man's pleasure and comforts, as well, per- 
haps, as any one of my age, I determined to break 
away from those restraints which a false notion of 
dignified professional propriety had imposed, and 
at the risk of ostracism from the brotherhood, and 
to be classed with those who are considered as 
interlopers, I resolved to advertise my abilities 
and to make myself useful in a sphere wherein I 
felt satisfied that I could successfully compete 
with any of my brethren. The consequence has 
been that, instead of a limited and precarious prac- 
tice, extending only to a few personal friends, I 
have, each succeeding year, seen added to my list 
of patients persons from every section of the coun- 
try, as well as from the adjoining British Prov- 
inces and foreign lands. Completely absorbed 
in the cares and duties imposed upon me by 
this increase of patronage, I have not been able 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. i) 

to revise and republish those works to which, I 
believe, I am in a great degree indebted for my 
early success in obtaining so large and remuner- 
ative a practice as I now enjoy. 

These thirty years of close application to my 
profession have yielded an experience which, 
added to theoretical attainments, acquired when 
professional calls did not press so heavily upon 
me, have, I believe, fully qualified me now to 
yield to the repeated solicitations of my friends 
and patrons, to prepare, for their use, a manual 
which shall serve them as a guide in those cases 
of accident and exposure to which all are liable, 
whatever may have been their training and cul- 
ture, or however strong their sense of moral 
and religious obligations, to avoid temptation 
and excess, in whatever shape it may assail 
them. 

Amidst all of the vast catalogue of diseases 
which afflict the human race, there are none 
which reach so many, and sting so sharply, as 
those denominated " sexual." From the strip- 
ling, hardly arrived at the age of puberty, up to 
the hoary-headed patriarch of three score years 
and ten, we find that none are exempt. Even 
the infant, before it has been expelled from the 



6 the gentleman's 

body of its mother, is too frequently tainted, its 
blood corrupted, and its fair form mutilated by 
a disease communicated to it by its erring pa- 
rents. Did this gTeat social evil limit its etfects 
merely to a temporary disability of its immedi- 
ate victims, and were it apparent only in the hos- 
pitals and doctor's apartments, where it seeks to 
assuage its pains and find a cure for the evils 
arising from it, though severe and often revolt- 
ing, its consequences would be slight in compari- 
son with what they really are. Were such dis- 
eases merely local in their character, the actual 
cautery, and the dissecting knife, might be relied 
upon for their extirpation ; but, unhappily, this is 
not so. When once the infection has gained a 
foothold upon the human system, it is not mere- 
ly those parts most immediately exposed and af- 
fected, but, like a fiery devil, it pervades every 
part of the bodily organization. It seizes upon 
the blood, the very life of man, and along its 
currents it carries the infection through every 
vein and tissue ; and coursing its way through 
the spinal column it seizes upon the citadel of 
man's power, the brain, and if unchecked and un- 
subdued, paralyzes and enfeebles the organs of 
thought as well as action. When the evidences of 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 7 

such destruction are daily presented to our view, 
can the physician overestimate the importance 
of the mission to which he is called, and can he, 
if possessed of a spark of manly feeling, shrink, 
through a false estimate of professional pride, to 
give to such cases the very best efforts of his 
professional skill ? Human health and life are 
equally dear to all. The wealthy merchant, the 
venerable clergyman, — the centre and delight of 
a highly cultivated and fashionable congregation, 
— the millionaire, reclining at his ease in his sump- 
tuous " stone front," may, and do, from their posi- 
tion and power of their wealth, command the at- 
tendance and exercise of the best skill the country 
can produce ; and the petted favorite of such ex- 
alted patronage is looked up to as particularly 
fortunate, and eminence is awarded to him, simply 
because Croesus and Dives head the list of his pa- 
trons. The equally, and frequently more skilful 
physician, who, with a strong and manly heart, 
and firm hand, nerves himself to a daily and hour- 
ly contest with disease, the result of libidinous 
desires and unholy passions, is looked upon too 
frequently with scorn, and treated as an empiric 
because he advertises to the world his ability 
and willingness to treat those cases which his 



8 THE GENTLEMAN '8 

more delicate and sensitive brethren regard with 
contempt. For myself, I am ready to alleviate 
human misery and distress wherever it may be 
found, and in whatever form it may present it- 
self. I have seen as much sincere goodness, as 
much downright honesty, elevated and high- 
toned principle and friendship in the unhappy 
victims of venereal and syphilitic diseases, as in 
any people I have had to deal with. 

For the rescue of the miserable victims of in- 
temperance laws are enacted, which have en- 
grossed the time and attention of legislators, ses- 
sion after session; bodies of executive officers, 
costly to be maintained, are organized and set 
in motion ; retreats and asylums are established, 
and whole communities and states are con- 
vulsed, from center to circumference, with the 
exciting questions of prohibition or non-prohibi- 
tion, license or no license, and the advocates of 
temperance are canonized as the apostles of all 
good. Yet a social evil of far greater magni- 
tude than any caused by mere intemperance in 
the use of alcoholic and stimulating drinks, stalks 
abroad in our midst at noon-day, at eventide, 
and in the still watches of the night, selecting 
its victims from the young, the beautiful, and the 



MEDICAL ADVISEB. 9 

lovely. The heart of society is cankered at its 
core, and he who devotes himself to assuage, 
eradicate, and stay this great evil, is denounced 
as a quack, or perhaps shunned as an ignorant 
pretender. For one I am willing to bear the im- 
putation, so long as I know that I am benefiting 
my fellow men. Thirty years of professional in- 
tercourse and dealing with this unfortunate 
class of patients, have taught me lessons which 
neither books nor the more learned of my fel- 
low men could furnish ; and the best tribute of 
thanks which I can render them now, is that 
whilst in the full meridian of life, with faculties 
ripened and matured, and in the enjoyment of a 
full and lucrative business, I devote the leisure 
hours that may be afforded me in furnishing to 
them and all others who may be interested in 
the subject, such advice, counsels, and directions, 
as will enable them to avoid those dangerous 
strands and breakers upon which so many have 
suffered shipwreck. 

By this I do not wish to have it understood 
that I design to furnish such a book as will 
enable any one to " doctor himself/' Very far 
from it. Of all the mischiefs resulting from any 
of the diseases incident to early imprudence, 



10 THE GENTLEMAX'S 

excessive indulgence, or unclean sexual inter- 
course, not the least are those consequent upon 
the application of supposed remedies unadvised 
by a competent physician. There can hardly 
occur any degree of infection, however slight, 
but at once demands the inspection and the 
treatment of one able at a glance to see the 
extent of the danger, and restrain its further 
ravages. Men are crippled, their features and 
limbs distorted for life, simply because of some 
self-application of corrosive and dangerous min- 
eral preparations by those who have become in- 
fected ; and who, in the first moments of alarm, 
have, with the view to a concealment of their 
condition, resorted to these poisonous and deadly 
drugs for relief. Cases which, even if let alone 
to pursue the work of destruction unmolested, 
could not have assumed more dangerous or dis- 
gusting forms, have, by a dangerous and unwise 
meddling with, been driven into the system, dis- 
tributing the virus to every vital part, until, from 
what was at first a mild attack in its simplest 
form, the victim is now enveloped in a flame 
from which he can be rescued only by the 
boldest and most courageous efforts. 

Neither is it my intention to pander to a 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 11 

prurient and debased curiosity and appetite, 
which seeks gratification in the perusal of books 
devoted to subjects ordinarily supposed to come 
"within the range of the physician's or midwife's 
care and attention exclusively. My design will 
be simply to point out the various disorders and 
complaints incident to youth and manhood, 
through an abuse, over-indulgence, or unguarded 
indulgence of the generative organs. To do this 
I do not deem it at all necessary that I shall enter 
into all the minutiae of their anatomical struc- 
ture, nor into a pathological description and 
inquiry as to the origin and character of the 
diseases themselves. I am not writing for 
doctors nor learned professors of physiological 
and pathological science, but for those who, un- 
learned and unskilled in all these matters, are, 
after once satisfied that help is requisite in their 
cases, to be restored to health, if at all, by the 
counsels and guidance of another, and that, the 
physician of their choice. 

Setting aside for the present all allusions to 
hereditary taint and disease, and addressing my- 
self only to those presumed to have received 
from their parents at least an ordinarily healthy 
and strong constitution, I believe I do not err 



12 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

in the opinion that, not one in fifty have escaped 
the influence of evil example, or, through such 
faultless physical training as not to have fre- 
quently indulged in, if not become addicted to,* 
the habit of masturbation. I make use of this 
term because I believe it to be generally under- 
stood by the most artless and inexperienced. 
The artificial forms of living, the universal use 
of stimulating food and drinks, the intimate and 
unguarded association of the sexes in all the vari- 
ous forms of social and fashionable life have been, 
and are such as to lead to a premature develop- 
ment of the virile passions and desires which, 
implanted in our natures for the sole purposes 
of procreation and the perpetuation of the 
human species, have, under this unnatural and 
premature stimulus, suggested the artificial 
and ready means of relief in self-pollution and 
abuse. Whilst the boy has been tenderly and 
carefully trained in everything else necessary 
to the full and useful development of all his 
faculties, by a fatal mistake, arising through 
ignorance on the part of parents and guardians, 
this great evil has been ignored, and left to pur- 
sue its deadly ravages unchecked. Physiology 
and the laws of life, the very uses of the organs 



MEDICAL AI>VISEE. 13 

of procreation, other than for purposes of bodily 
evacuation, have been studiously concealed from 
our youth, and they have been left to acquire 
from associates and evil example a knowledge 
of vices and habits which, before they are aware 
of it, and long ere their natural guardians have 
any suspicions of it, have laid the foundation of 
a train of evils and diseases which, if unchecked, 
will inevitably lead to early decay and death. 
How many of these victims have I known 
whose broken down constitutions, indicated by 
the faltering gait, the vacant stare, and almost 
idiotic countenance, are pointed out as objects 
of commiseration because of a supposed too 
close application to study and an overtasked 
brain, and the cause of their failure in life 
attributed to anything but the true one. I do 
not now remember that out of the thousands of 
cases in which I have been consulted, and where 
this vice has been the chief, and perhaps the 
only cause of disease and trouble, but it has 
turned out in the course of my examination 
that this habit has been indulged in innocently, 
and from an entire ignorance of its deadly and 
fearful consequences. "Had I have known, 
had I have been forewarned, what a world of 



14 THE GEXTLEMAS'S 

misery and wretchedness I should have es- 
caped," has been the invariable exclamation of 
those from whom I have " wormed out,'' as it 
were, the secret history of their past habits and 
indulgences. My reader, let me put the ques- 
tion to you. It is not necessary that I should 
put you under a rigid examination and extort 
from you, by an artful system of professional in- 
quiry, whether you are faultless in this respect. 
It is not necessary that I should inquire of you 
whether the weakness in the back, the pains in 
side and breast, the troubled sleep, the lascivious 
dreams,- the fading and disordered vision, and 
the wavering mind, the disinclination to society 
and gradual failure of all manly power of which 
you complain, are attributable to this vice or 
not. You kzstow. Memory and reason have 
not yet become unseated, and the past is open 
before you ; and you may trace, as in an open 
book, the records of those early indulgences and 
youthful indiscretions which have, step by step, 
conducted you to the precipice upon which you 
now stand. It is to you these pages are ad- 
dressed. You have long felt that you were on 
untenable ground, and that everything before 
you was dark and dreary as the grave to which 



MEDICAL AimSEfi. 15 

Toil looked forward as a last and almost wel- 
come refuge from the pains and miseries of life* 
Were the consequences limited only to yourself, 
the pangs of remorse, as well as the pains 
arising from your numerous ills, might be 
patiently, even if hopelessly home ; hut if, as is 
taost likely to he the case, there is another in- 
terested in your happiness, or what is equally 
as unfortunate, whose happiness is dependent 
upon your fulfilment of plighted tows for recip- 
rocated affection, how wretched is your lot. By 
your own hands you have placed a barrier be- 
tween yourself and the accomplishment of your 
brightest earthly hopes. You know yourself 
unequal to the performance of* all the duties of 
manhood in the interesting relation to which 
you have pledged yourself, and you shrink back 
appalled at the very idea of exposing your im- 
potency and lack of ability honorably to com- 
plete the engagement you have contracted, 
Evasion, despair, dishonor, suicide and death are 
by turns contemplated^ until, in the horrible con- 
flict, the body becomes a weary burden, and 
reason no longer guides you by its dictates. 
You struggle on like the blind man in the 
morass, and your every effort at escape only 



10 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

sinks you deeper and deeper into the slough in 
which you are engulfed. Young man, this is 
no fancy sketch. It is the secret history of 
thousands and tens of thousands, and among 
whom you are perhaps numbered. If this is so, 
then it is time, and more than time, that you 
availed yourself of the helps which medical 
science holds out to rescue you from the im- 
pending destruction of your mental and physical 
faculties, and to restore you to yourself, to your 
friends, and to society, a renovated, sound, and 
saved human being. 

I think it not needful for me to go through all 
the details of the steps through which you were 
gradually initiated into all the mysteries of un- 
lawful pleasures, nor the symptoms of those dis- 
eases which too surely are the ever-ready attend- 
ants upon their votaries. I would not entirely 
suppress the ardors of youth by ascetic rules nor 
monastic vows. I understand human nature, 
and take it as I find it, and hence I have a large 
charity for those who, impelled by irresistible 
desire and strong temptation, are led into dan- 
ger. But I do most earnestly wish to benefit 
them, nevertheless. 

My desire to make myself thoroughly under- 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 17 

stood and not commit myself to the charge of 
indelicacy and the use of language which might 
exclude this treatise from unconcealed and open 
perusal, renders it somewhat difficult for me to 
express myself upon all those interesting topics 
embraced within the scope of the investigations 
upon which we are now engaged. I have called 
your attention to the great vice of solitary in- 
dulgence, and have incidentally referred to it as 
resulting in creating impediments to marriage, 
dangerous to health, and difficult to be sur- 
mounted. I must go further, and instruct you 
that, however great and serious these obstacles 
are, that if they are properly attacked before 
they culminate in entire impotency and imbe- 
cility, there are remedies lately discovered by 
myself which, in connection with proper diet 
and regimen, the powers of the body thus pre- 
maturely weakened and dormant may be re- 
stored to their former activity and strength ; and 
that, too, without resorting to any of those offen- 
sive mechanical means and appliances which 
formerly were so much relied upon. Neither 
am I an advocate of constant drugging, and the 
administration of stimulating cordials, to effect 
this object. I had tried all the usual and well 
2 



18 THE GEXTLEMAX'S 

known remedies hitherto regarded as infallible 
and specific in their re-iirrigoration of prema- 
turely-exhausted manhood, and was pained to 
find that with them, as with almost all tonics 
and stimulating preparations which have a 
direct tendency to, and action upon those parts 
supposed the most to need their immediate ap- 
plication and restoring qualities, the reaction 
was too violent, and that their repeated use 
gradually undermined the very foundation of 
power, until finally there was nothing left to an- 
imate and excite. During many years of my 
practice I had this difficulty to contend with. 
The medicinal virtues of every vegetable sub- 
stance, embracing roots, barks, flowers, and 
berries, were carefully investigated and ascer- 
tained, and whilst they yielded many most valu- 
able additions to my stock of remedies and to 
our national pharmacopoea, none of them came 
up to my wishes in imparting, without the sub- 
sequent reaction, those restoring and strength- 
ening powers so desirable to be secured, and 
without which no amount of care, careful nurs- 
ing, diet, with all the adjuncts of well-timed and 
regulated hours for sleep, exercise, and recrea- 
tion, seemed to be available. Xot content with 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 19 

ransacking the whole botanical kingdom of this 
country I expended thousands of dollars, in 
pushing my investigations to other and more 
distant climes, until at length my persistence 
and perseverence were rewarded in the discoyery 
of what I had so long sought, — a purely vegeta- 
ble preparation of surpassing curative and tonic 
properties, as healthful, soothing, and beneficial 
in its operations upon the mind and nervous 
system as it is almost magically efficacious in its 
healing powers when administered as a remedy 
in the cases to which I have just alluded. 
Alone, or its judicious mixture with other well 
known remedies, enabling it to produce its 
effects just in proportion to the nature and te- 
nacity of the disease, has satisfied me that, in it 
the great desideratum in accomplishing a per- 
fect cure of almost all the infirmities arising 
from the indulgence of solitary vice, as well as 
all nervous, sexual, and cutaneous diseases, has 
been at last discovered. For many years, at 
great expense. I have laid in my supplies of this 
invaluable product of nature; and although I 
have resorted to its use in thousands of cases 
where the genito-urinal organs were affected, or 
where, through them, other parts of the system, 



20 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

or the general health of the body has suffered, 
I have rarely failed to find it accomplish all, and 
even more, than I had hoped for ; and here let 
me remark, that in a general way I am no ad- 
vocate for, nor do I countenance the use of, 
strange and unfamiliar remedies. Neither do I 
deal in or use such. But the fruits of my own 
researches and discoveries in the botanical king- 
dom, which is alike free to all, I must be allowed 
to enjoy. If I have, prompted by a greater 
zeal, and animated by a stronger desire for suc- 
cess and professional distinction, and by the ex- 
penditure of much valuable time and large sums 
of money, secured a valuable adjunct in the 
cure of disease, I feel no compunctions what- 
ever in retaining in my own hands, during my 
life time, the exclusive use and emoluments 
arising from my discovery. Certain I am, that 
no human being besides myself possesses my 
secret. The various forms and proportions in 
which I have administered this invaluable rem- 
edy, and the astonishing as well as gratifying 
results produced by it, have led me to still 
farther prosecute my experiments with it in 
almost every stage and grade of seminal and 
sexual disease where the propriety of tonic and 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 21 

invigorating remedies are called for; and having 
used it now for many year's, in both sexes, of 
almost every age, am prepared to say that it is 
far superior to any other remedy of which I 
have any knowledge. That most distressing 
form of seminal debility, which results from an 
involuntary and frequent discharge from the 
urinary organs, is checked by it as if by the 
hand of Omnipotence itself, whilst the cheerful 
and exhilirating effects which it produces in all 
the functions of life, especially upon the brain, 
equalizing and moderating all the passions, and 
allaying all the causes of undue excitement, 
that those parts and organs, hitherto enfeebled 
through excess and disease, have time to re- 
cuperate, and are enabled to resume their 
natural functions. Although I can well say, 
with a distinguished writer upon these topics, 
that I have found no royal plan of accomplish- 
ing a speedy or certain removal in all cases of 
the maladies under consideration without the 
exercise of great patience and care, and that no 
man who possesses true medical and surgical 
skill will confine himself exclusively to a few 
medicinal substances that may have acquired 
notoriety as specifics, yet I can truly say that in 



22 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

a more extended practice than has been Touch* 
safed to the generality of the profession, since 
my discovery of the remedy alluded to, I have 
met with greater success and fewer defeats in 
subduing this form of disease than I had before. 
Its great recommendation is, that, under no 
possible circumstances can it do any harm, and, 
unlike the common and standard medicines 
almost always given and regarded as specifics, 
especially by those charlatans who infest every 
large city, it does not, and cannot of itself, create 
inflammation and apparent disease to enable an 
unscrupulous medical attendant to excite the 
fears and frighten the patient into a protracted 
course of treatment, having for its object only 
the creation of a heavy bill to the pecuniary 
benefit of the practitioner. 

Patients, however, must not be led into the 
error that diseases of tin's kind are to be subdued 
instanter. In a large majority of cases the 
physician is not called upon until the patient, 
especially if a novice in these matters, has not 
taken some time to speculate upon the nature of 
the complaint that is upon him ; and is often re- 
strained by feelings of shame and mortification 
from making his condition known, or has tried 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 23 

his own skill or some favorite remedy suggested 
by a friendly companion, in expectation that he 
will be spared the infliction as well as the ex- 
pense of a professional consultation in regard to 
it ; or, if he has resolved upon the latter course, 
precious time is lost in solving his doubts as to 
whom it will be most advantageous to apply to. 
The ordinary family physician, whose counte- 
nance and ways are as familiar to him as one of 
his " own folks," is not a moment to be thought 
of. His first promptings will be to call upon 
some one whose exalted standing and reputa- 
tion as a physician, and position in society as 
a high-minded and honorable man, would be 
all-sufficient not only to ensure proper medical 
treatment, but in whose keeping his character 
and reputation would be safe from exposure ; for, 
it is a painful truth, that the suspicion of being 
the victim of secret disease is too often the 
cause of exclusion from society and the coolness 
and neglect of former friends. This whole pro- 
ceeding is the result not only of inexperience, 
but is imprudent and unwise from beginning to 
end. In no other affair of importance do we 
act with so little discretion, and are so little 
guided by the prudential maxims of every day 



24 the gentleman's 

life. Ordinarily we would not apply to a learned 
and philosophic professor of speculative science, 
however wide his fame, to repair our chronom- 
eter or to a polish a diamond, simply, because he 
is not supposed to possess the mechanical skill 
and ingenuity necessary to the performance of 
such a piece of work. We seek out our ship- 
wright, or carpenter, tailor, and other mechan- 
ics, each according to their several trades, 
because as such they are known to be skilful 
and reliable. Such should also be our course 
in regard to our physician ; and in the medical 
and surgical treatment of those terrible and life- 
destroying diseases of which we are now speak- 
ing, we should only resort to those who have 
gained their knowledge of all the peculiarities 
of these dread diseases by long and careful study 
and an exclusive attention to them, enabling 
them from experience, rather than books, to con- 
quer the destroyer in all the varied forms it is 
accustomed to present itself. 

During the thirty years of my practice in this 
city the records of my business will show a list 
of nearly one hundred thousand patients, com- 
prising those affected with every stage and 
degree of private and sexual disease, and cer- 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 25 

tainly not one of the many who are styled 
advertising doctors can boast of such a volumin- 
ous epistolary correspondence as I have been 
obliged to keep up in connection with this ex- 
tensive business. Although, as a general rule, I 
destroy all communications where it is evident 
that the writer is particularly anxious for con- 
cealment, yet in many cases of especial interest, 
where the letters only embrace matters con- 
nected with the case and cure, I have preserved 
them as grateful recollections of the benefits I 
have conferred upon my fellow man, and as 
honorable trophies of my success. Were not 
the fashion a hackneyed one, and open to the 
charge of fabrication for mere effect, I should 
reproduce here more of this correspondence, to 
confirm what I have said in regard to the happy 
and astonishing cures performed by me, chiefly 
through those remedies known only to myself, 
and discovered by me through years of sleepless 
toil, self-denial, investigation, and unsparing 
pecuniary outlay. But I forbear, well knowing 
how liable such displays are to be misunder- 
stood, and their truthfulness misrepresented by 
the envious and unsuccessful. I shall freely 
avail myself of this opportunity, however, before 



26 THE gentleman's 

I conclude these pages, to reproduce some of 
the testimonials of the press, which at various 
places and at different times has liberally and 
generously commented upon the uniform great 
success which has attended my practice. 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 27 



PAKT SECOND. 



THUS far I have limited my appeal chiefly to 
the young, and hare referred only to the 
milder forms of secret disease, which, although 
less fatal in their immediate effects, if promptly 
and properly attended to, yet do, if neglected, 
mismanaged, or tampered with, lead to most 
distressing and often fatal consequences. I 
shall now proceed a degree further, and ap- 
proaching the full-grown man, speak of the more 
terrific forms of this destroyer, such as it presents 
itself in all its power of evil and destructive 
might. If happily the youth has escaped, " as 
by fire," and in the consciousness of renewed 
powers and a purified body, has arrived at man- 
hood, and assumed the cares and responsibilities 
of a husband and a father, he is still liable to the 
same temptations ; and whatever may be said of 
the folly or guilt to be attached to his conduct, is 
again the victim of unclean and diseased sexual 
association. This time, however, it comes upon 
him, not in the simple form of a suspicious excre- 



28 THE GEXTLEMAX'S 

tion of a viscid matter, staining his apparel and 
tormenting him in the performance of one of 
nature's offices, but has seized upon him in some 
one of those formidable forms which, if un- 
restrained, even at the moment of attack, is most 
certain to eat its way to and through every part 
and organ of the machinery of life, until its 
hapless victim is laid out a poor deformed and 
crippled wreck of humanity, a loathing to him- 
self and a burden, and perhaps scorn to all with 
whom he is connected. When the individual 
finds himself in this condition the instinct of 
self-preservation at once prompts him to fly to 
the first suggested means of relief; and every 
country practitioner has ready at hand a mercu- 
rial preparation of some kind, found in the books 
ever since the art of printing was invented, and 
the science of medicine and surgery came out of 
the hands of barbers and apothecaries, and 
assumed the character of a separate and inde- 
pendent profession. It is useless to say that, in 
ninety-nine cases out of the hundred, these old 
stereotyped prescriptions and remedies which, 
fifty years ago would occasionally eflect a cure, 
are now, owing to the constant change which 
has been sroing on in the nature of these dis- 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 29 

eases, as inert and ineffectual to produce a cure 
as simple water itself; and any one may now 
daily witness in the mutilated figures of many 
a passer along the thronged thoroughfares of 
our large cities, the horrid effects of mercurial 
preparations which have only succeeded in over- 
powering one disease by the substitution of 
another none the less fearful, and equally as 
destructive as the first. As I am not writing a 
pathological guide for the use of the medical 
practitioner, it is not my design, as before in- 
timated, to confuse and embarrass the general 
reader by a methodical classification of symp- 
toms and diseases. This is too often attempted 
by those who, by the use of technical and scien- 
tific terms, seek only to display their own attain- 
ments, and to lead others to think, that they are 
wondrous wise. My effort will be to make my- 
self understood in plain, simple language, so 
that the afflicted may readily comprehend the 
true nature of his situation, the evils with which 
he is threatened, and the proper course to pursue 
in the painful emergency in which he is placed. 
In the progress of this horrible disease to which 
I am now calling your attention, no part of the 
human system escapes contamination nor fails 



30 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

to sympathize with the local parts more immedi- 
ately attacked. The virus is almost immediate- 
ly transferred by the touch, by the irrepressible 
propensity felt to handle and examine the dis- 
eased parts, to almost every other portion of the 
body susceptible of contagion or innoculation, 
until the lips, nose, throat, eyes, and every open- 
ing and cavity of the body is contaminated by 
the deadly virus, whilst within, it is being circu- 
lated by the vital current, the blood, into all 
parts of the system. At this stage of the dis- 
ease no palliating nor half-way measures can 
stop its ravages. Self-treatment, guided and 
directed as it may be, by a consultation of the 
whole list of medical authorities, is utterly 
powerless. The caprices and changes charac- 
teristic of the complaint are such that, only 
the experienced practitioner can detect its true 
character, and direct with certainty the artillery 
necessary to its overthrow. There is hardly a 
day passes but I am consulted by more or less 
of those who, neglecting the first approaches of 
this insidious destroyer, are so far enveloped in 
its embraces as to them it appears almost im- 
possible to be cured. But, when I have exhib- 
ited to them the incontestable evidences of the 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 31 

cures performed by me, of cases in many 
instances as severe as their own, they have 
manifested a joy which no pen can describe. 
Certainly it would have been better for them, as 
it would be more agreeable to me, had I have 
been consulted at an earlier period ; but, never- 
theless, whatever may have been the cause of 
neglect or delay, I am positive that the disease 
cannot long resist the almost immediate, power- 
ful, and searching operation of the remedies 
which I apply. So far from resorting to those 
painful and severe caustic applications hitherto 
so common, and usually regarded as indispensa- 
ble, I proceed by mild, emolient, and soothing 
preparations for external treatment, which, 
aided by an internal administration of my great 
remedy, prepared in just the proper proportion, 
in connection with other healing and balsamic 
productions of the vegetable kingdom, all in- 
fl amatory action is at once quietly subdued. 
The tonic properties of the medicine is at once 
imparted to the system, the digestive organs 
become cleansed and regulated, and perform all 
their functions like a charm; and the curative 
and healing process goes on quite rapidly, and 
in exact accordance with nature's laws. By a 



32 THE GEXTLEMAX ? S 

strict adherence to the conditions necessary to 
be observed in the process of treatment, it is 
absolutely impossible that any failure or disap- 
pointment should occur; and what is most 
singular, where once this rare preparation has 
taken an effectual hold upon the system, not 
only does it drive off the loathsome disease, but 
it fortifies and strengthens the parts hitherto 
affected and enfeebled, so that in a wonderfully 
short space of time they are restored to their 
pristine vigor, and no traces remain of the 
malady which so recently threatened so much 
devastation and ruin. Of all ages and classes of 
men upon whom the ravages of the sexual dis- 
eases are to be feared, there are none to whom 
it is so dangerous as to those in the meridian of 
life. This is doubly the case when the individ- 
ual is at the head of a family. Not limited to 
himself, his wife, the lawful partner of his bosom 
and the mother of his children, is in danger of in- 
fection. Their natural protector and guardian, he 
finds himself the bearer in his own body of a virus 
more to be dreaded than that of the deadly upas. 
His social and domestic enjoyments are broken in 
upon by his foul fiend, and if he once yields to the 
solicitations of love, and in an unguarded moment 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 33 

gives way to its gratification, the envenomed shaft 
has reached another victim, and beings yet un- 
born are not only possibly, but probably, made 
to share in his infection. There is nothing more 
certain than that this disease is thus propagated 
from sire to son, through many generations, and 
that scrofula, in almost all the hideous forms in 
which it developes itself, such as tubercular con- 
sumption, weak, sore, and inflamed eyes, the 
early falling off of the hair, deafness, chronic and 
inflamatory rheumatism, spinal diseases of all 
kinds, are more or less frequently the direct con- 
sequences of the parent's indiscretion and disease, 
years before his ill-fated offspring ever saw the 
light of day. When I have indicated such fear- 
ful results as springing from a single cause, it 
cannot be necessary that I should again urge 
upon my reader the absolute necessity that, if he 
has unfortunately " been caught," there should 
neither be delay in his struggles to escape, but 
that his strength should not be wasted in mis- 
guided and misdirected efforts to attain that 
end. A single false step may plunge him in 
irretrievable misery and bodily ruin. No art 
can restore the mutilated face, the palsied limb, 
the vivacious countenance, or the sparkling eye, 
3 



34 THE GEXTLEMAX'S 

when once this disease has passed over them, 
and has left the impress of its poisonous seal. 
There is no rescue or salvation except in the 
immediate application of curative means ; and all 
medical history and testimony will tell you that, 
up to this time, with all ordinary practising phy- 
sicians, there has been no specific remedy found 
for this disease upon which any reliance could 
be placed, except in those rare cases in which 
mercury, in some of its many forms or combina- 
tions with other hardly less deleterious sub- 
stances, have been found effectual, and then only 
in overpowering the disease by substituting, in 
very many instances, another and almost equally 
dangerous one in its stead. Every person of 
common intelligence is aware that what are 
generally termed mercurial diseases are of 
themselves the most distressing, troublesome, 
and protracted of all those the physician is 
called upon to treat. Painful and even disgust- 
ing sores, eruptions, and dis colorations of the 
skin, extreme susceptibility to atmospheric 
changes, sharp and shooting pains in the joints 
and limbs, frequent recurrence of torpidity in 
all the digestive organs, dyspepsia with its long 
catalogue of horrors, exfoliations of portions of 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. oO 

the bones, particularly in those parts especially 
exposed to observation ; these and many more, 
too numerous to mention, are but a part of the 
serious evils arising from the indiscriminate use 
which has been made of this powerful drug in 
the cure of private diseases. 

With what joy and gratitude, then, should 
mankind hail the discovery of a system of 
thorough cure, unattended by any such dangers 
as I have described. A system so mild, so posi- 
tively certain in its effects, and withal so harm- 
less as to be utterly incapable of doing injury in 
any case whatever. And then, again, there are 
other consequences not less serious and regreta- 
ble, entailing unhappiness and discontent in all 
subsequent life. Impotency, that bane of mar- 
ried life, is not an infrequent consequence of 
not only the diseases to which I have alluded^ 
but of the very remedies which have been un- 
wisely and unskilfully administered for their 
cure. How many there are who, in every other 
respect seem admirably mated, and in every 
way constituted to render each other happy, but 
whose desolate households indicate but too 
surely the cause of domestic disquietude, or an 
aching void, which can only be filled by healthy 



36 THE gentleman's 

and beautiful offspring. Whatever may be the 
worldly circumstances of those who have en- 
tered into the marriage relation, the perpetua- 
tion of themselves in their children is one of 
the very first promptings of their hearts ; and 
failing in this, the domestic hearthstone becomes 
cheerless, and the gifts of fortune, however 
numerous, are comparatively valueless and 
lightly esteemed. It is in cases of this kind 
that my remedies have proved of priceless and 
inestimable value. It matters not from what 
cause the inability may arise, whether from pre- 
vious disease, or the injurious effects of un- 
wholesome and poisonous drugs, or the weaken- 
ing and disorganizing effects of early habits. I 
have never yet failed to reconstruct and restore 
the enfeebled powers to effective vitality, and 
to enable the husband to be in a condition not 
only fully to enjoy all the pleasing concomitants 
of wedded life, but to realize his dearest wishes 
in the ability to propagate his species, and to 
raise up children to cheer, bless, and comfort 
him in his old age. That this can be done most 
happily and effectively, without resource to any 
painful surgical operation, without resorting to 
those tonics and stimulants which, after pro- 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 37 

during a momentary excitement, leaves the 
patient more exhausted and enfeebled than be- 
fore, I know; and there are hundreds now 
living within but a very narrow circuit of the 
place I now write, who can bear joyful testi- 
mony to the truth of my assertions. Let no one 
despair of help, for I assure him that, unless 
nature herself has been wanting in her usual 
gifts, and some such unwonted calamity as 
emasculation has taken place, I can most cer- 
tainly restore all his lost or waning powers, and 
render him happy and hopeful in that home 
where before he was cheerless and desponding. 
That this deficiency or loss of power may be- 
come more obdurate, and less easy to overcome 
by omiting seasonably to resort to curative 
means, is also certain ; hence the necessity of 
attending to it as soon as the difficulty is known 
to exist. Delay only renders its removal a more 
protracted and aggravating process, whilst it 
cuts short days and years of bliss which might 
otherwise be enjoyed. Persons who find them- 
selves incapacitated to a full fecundative exer- 
cise of all the virile functions, should never rest 
satisfied short of a complete restoration of all 
their faculties; and to effect this through the 



38 THE GEXTLEMAX'3 

safest and surest means should be to them a 
matter of the gravest consideration. Almost 
every locality, and especially our large cities, 
are literally crowded and overrun with unprin- 
cipled adventurers, whose pretensions and abil- 
ities are equally preposterous and absurd ; men 
who like those who 

" Steal the livery of heaven to serve the devil in." 
enshroud their former insignificance and ob- 
scurity in some name, the possessor of which 
may at one time have had some distinction as a 
medical practitioner. These imposters and 
scourges of society waylay and beset the in- 
valid and the suffering at every turn, and most 
unfortunate is the credulous and unsophisticated 
wight who suffers himself thus to be entrapped. 
Xot one in fifty of them can boast of a single 
degree of medical knowledge or skill beyond 
that acquired perhaps as servant to some in- 
valid, or gained from a superficial study of some 
old book of useful receipts which has alone con- 
stituted his whole medical library. Of this class 
of pretenders you cannot be too guarded. Of 
such it may be truly said ; " They allure with 
a look, a wink, a nod. Hell does not contain so 
foul a fiend nor earth so fell a foe ; the helpless 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 39 

and unfortunate are their victims, murder is 
their employment, and death their sport." I 
would not lay such stress upon this caution 
against empiricism and quackery, did not every 
day's experience more fully demonstrate to me 
the vast amount of mischief perpetrated by 
these reckless adventurers. Cases in which, 
had a thoroughly skilled specialist been con- 
sulted in the first instance, would, with but 
little loss of time, and but moderate expense, 
been rapidly made to give way to the proper 
medical treatment, have, through sheer ignor- 
ance, been made to assume forms so disgusting, 
repulsive, and dangerous, that I have long hesi- 
tated to assume the responsibility of prescribing 
for them. 

Intimately connected with those diseases 
having their origin in impure sexual intercourse, 
are others, which, though not traceable to the 
same cause, are none the less troublesome and 
very often the means not only of aggravating 
the sexual diseases, but tending to complicate 
them and perplex the medical attendant, as well 
as to create greater distress and pain to the 
sufferer himself. Watery collections in and be- 
tween those parts constituting the genital or- 



40 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

gans in man, are frequent ; and sometimes the 
causes are so involved in obscurity that the 
most skilful surgeons are often at a loss how to 
account for them. This difficulty, known to 
medical men under the name of hydrocele, has 
ever been regarded by the profession as incura- 
ble by medical treatment, and only yielding to 
a surgical operation. Palliatives are resorted 
to, and the inconveniences arising from it 
obviated in part by drawing off the contents of 
the sac by a trocar, and by such other mechan- 
ical appliances as the ingenuity of the prac- 
titioner may suggest. The many aggravated 
cases of this kind which I have met with in my 
practice, the almost insuperable bar presented 
by it to a successful treatment of a contagious 
disease affecting the parts at the same time, the 
reluctance to which the patient would listen 
to any suggestions as to the employ of " instru- 
ments " or mechanical appliances for his relief, 
spurred me on to every effort in my power to 
relieve this very painful and dangerous disease. 
Nor have my researches been in vain. I have 
discovered remedies, by the proper administra- 
tion of which this complaint is made to disap- 
pear almost as rapidly as mist before the morn- 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 41 

ing sun. The clumsy and expensive apparatus 
hitherto applied, the dreaded trocar, the stimu- 
lating injections of former days, are entirely 
dispensed with, and by a medicine prepared only 
by myself, a process of absorption is engendered 
by which the disease is radically cured, almost 
unconsciously to the sufferer. And although I 
am constantly prescribing for and treating it 
with the most signal success, and to the entire 
relief and satisfaction of my patients, and hun- 
dreds of my medical brethren are aware of the 
fact, yet, if applied to, themselves, and inquired 
of as to their ability to cure it, reply, that medi- 
cal treatment would be unavailing. In view of 
these facts I feel impelled, from a sense of duty 
to suffering humanity, to invite every one 
afflicted with this complaint to apply to me for 
relief. I will not merely refer them to testimo- 
nials of undoubted authenticity and credit as to 
what I have accomplished in this respect, but 
will convince them, by means easily to be com- 
prehended, that this great desideratum in the 
healing art has at length been discovered. I 
know to what extent I incur the liability to the 
charge of egotism in making this assertion, and 
the slowness of the public to give credit to 



42 . THE gentleman's 

claims of extraordinary discoveries, especially 
in the treatment of those complaints which 
have so long baffled the skill of the most re- 
nowned physicians; but they must remember 
that such has been the case in every age of the 
world, and that Darwin, and Harvey, and 
Jenner, are not alone in having been the buts of 
ridicule and persecution because of their dis- 
coveries and efforts to benefit mankind by the 
introduction of new modes of warding off and 
curing disease. No dread of ridicule, nor the 
opposition of those who consider themselves as 
exclusively authorized to prescribe for disease, 
shall ever deter me from thus boldly making 
known my ability to benefit my fellow-men. 

In the foregoing, so far as I have addressed 
myself to those of middle life, whose physical 
organs have become matured, and in whom few 
or no organic changes are likely to occur for 
many years at least, I have called attention 
chiefly to such complaints and infirmities as 
immediately accompany, or closely follow, those 
self-engendered or contagious diseases, the re- 
sults of careless and promiscuous connection 
with those of the other sex. I have alluded also 
to the impediments which it creates to the 



MEDICAL ADVISED. 43 

formation of happy and permanent domestic 
relations, and to the satisfactory performance of 
all that is meant and intended in the marriage 
rite; and if I have not catalogued all the 
miseries and evils flowing from the causes set 
forth, it is not that I regard them as of minor 
importance, but it is that I have indulged the 
hope that no one in his sober senses, with such 
dangers impending over him as those which I 
have described, would, for a single hour, delay 
application to the proper source for relief. 
Varied, aggravated and accelerated as they are 
in the different forms they assume by reason 
of temperament, diet, constitutional defects, and 
the usual pursuits of business or amusements, 
there is no perfect standard for measuring their 
intensity, save in the long-tried skill of practical 
experience ; and I do not here purpose to load 
your mind with complicated details and nice 
distinctions which to you would be entirely un- 
intelligible, or, if understood, you would not be 
able to derive from them any solution to the 
difficulties and dangers which encompass you. 
This can only be afforded you by competent 
medical aid ; and I now, in the full confidence in 
my ability to relieve you of every trouble with 



44 THE gentleman's 

which you. are assailed, either now or in the 
prospective, invite you to try those truly heal- 
ing remedies of which I am the discoverer and 
only possessor. One of the greatest mistakes is 
that in which the victim imagines that if he 
discontinues such violations of the laws of his 
being, and becomes more temperate, regular, 
and abstemious in the indulgence of his passions 
and appetites, that disease will disappear, and 
the recuperative powers of nature will remedy 
every evil. But it must be borne in mind that 
disease is not self-curing. The causes 
which have done the mischief and inflicted the 
injury must be removed before anything in the 
whole range of medical science can cure you. 
So long as there remains lurking in the system 
any relics of those fatal effects of the poison, 
engendered either by disease itself or the im- 
proper remedies hitherto taken for your relief, 
you are in danger. Not only protracted and 
exquisitely painful complaints, such as chronic 
rheumatism, spinal affections, and the develop- 
ment of tubercular diseases, attack and threaten 
you with all their untold horrors and dangers, 
but death itself may warn you with its quick, 
sharp, paralytic stroke, that it is nigh at hand, 



MEDICAL ADVISEJB. 45 

and that the time for all earthly aid, with you, 
has passed forever. I must not omit to name 
another result of excessive sexual indulgence, 
the diseases incident to it, and the maltreat- 
ment to which they are so often subjected: 
premature exhaustion and decay ; and this leads 
me to the third part of this little treatise, in 
which I design to address a few words to those 
who, having passed through the age of ripe 
manhood, have entered upon that period of life 
when, in the course of nature, the natural 
powers begin to wane, and the passions and 
appetites become less clamorous in their de- 
mands for gratification, or if not, in whom the 
physical capacity necessary to that purpose is 
diminished through former excessive indul- 
gence, or as a consequence of the emasculating 
effects of the vile compounds to which they 
have been subjected through the ignorance and 
stupidity of those whom they have consulted 
when requiring medical treatment ; and I may 
as well remark here as anywhere, that the early 
loss of sexual power may very often be justly 
attributed to an excessive indulgence in other 
than in the unrestrained gratification of the 
desire for sexual intercourse. The early and 



46 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

indiscriminate use of stimulating and alcoholic 
drinks, an excessive use of tobacco, by which 
its nicotine qualities are absorbed and taken in- 
to the system, especially with those who lead 
sedentary and inactive lives, are among the 
many causes of premature decay; and when 
this period arrives, and full consciousness is felt 
that such is really the case, what can be more 
depressing to the mind, or more calculated to 
inspire an aversion to life, and to regard all its 
'hitherto anticipated pleasures and promised 
blessings as a base delusion and a cheat ? 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 47 



PART THIRD. 



AFTER the attainment of the ages of fifty- 
five or sixty years, in man, the generative 
powers gradually diminish, and, declining with 
increasing years, at the age of seventy and 
thence onward, cease to be able to accomplish 
the objects either of gratifying the passions or 
the perpetuation of his species. The depriva- 
tion, however, of these pleasures are not the 
only loss which he feels, and over which he is 
called to mourn. With the symptoms of ap- 
proaching decay, and the waning forces of 
manly power, he is sensible also of a decline in 
those mental and executive faculties by the force 
of which he has hitherto been enabled to over- 
come obstacles to success, and to acquire wealth 
and position in the world. It is true, that occa- 
sionally we meet with men of even three score 
years and ten and upwards, who display in all 
their movements and calculations but few or no 
evidences of senility, and who, up to a very 
advanced period in life, seem to enjoy almost un- 



48 THE gentleman's 

broken powers both of mind and body. I do 
not refer to that class of old men, the fag end of 
whose lives are devoted to the gratification of 
the baser passions of avarice and gain, which 
outlive every other sentiment, but to those 
whose bodily powers, carefully husbanded and 
preserved, have suffered no untoward deteriora- 
tion by the habits and practices of youthful in- 
discretions nor the excesses of middle age. 
These, having performed all the requirements of 
life's duties well, justly, in the evening of its 
journey pass calmly onward to its close, unin- 
terrupted and unassailed by any of those evils 
which embitter the declining years of the great 
majority of our fellow beings. 

These last, unhappily, in almost every stage 
of their progress, are constantly requiring the 
fostering care of benevolent hearts and willing 
hands to direct and lead them over the, perhaps, 
too dreary and barren wastes spread out before 
them, and to some extent the aids of science to 
assist in reinvigorating their dormant faculties. 
I have devoted much time to this interesting 
study, how best to restore to its former pos- 
sessors the lost powers of virility, so as to enable 
them at a comparatively advanced period of life 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 49 

to enjoy again, to a rational extent, all the 
pleasures of ripe manhood with those of the op- 
posite sex. Pursuing my investigations upon 
strict scientific principles, and aided by the 
ample means for experiment which my extensive 
practice has afforded, I have arrived at results 
as gratifying as they were new and astonishing. 
Without laying any claim to any such discovery 
as that wonderful fountain of youth which 
tempted the too credulous Ponce de Leon to 
brave the dangers of an unknown sea, I may, 
nevertheless, claim a discovery, which for cen- 
turies has baffled the skill and research of the 
most eminent philosophers and sages which the 
world has ever produced. I have succeeded in 
doing this without in any degree whatever draw- 
ing upon the reserved forces of life, so as to 
induce exhaustion and prostration after each re- 
curring effort ; but its effects are so gently and 
gradually tonic and stimulating as to give per- 
manent vigor and tone to every part of the 
system. Old age is thus shorn of half its 
terrors, and life, indeed, remains a perfect bless- 
ing to its very close. Not only are all the pro- 
creative faculties restored and invigorated by 
these wonderful remedies, but every part of the 
4 



50 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

body is made to share in their healthful and life 
giving properties. I would not thus speak so 
confidently and assuringly had I not witnessed 
in numberless instances the complete realization 
of all which I have here described. It is not 
yet three months since I was called upon by a 
gentlemen of over sixty years of age, whose cir- 
cumstances, in relation to property and family 
affairs rendered it highly expedient that he 
should take to himself a wife, after twice having 
become a widower. Although he felt, as he told 
me, in regard to that matter, the danger as well 
as what he considered the impropriety of uniting 
himself to one so many years younger than him- 
self, as was the lady for whom he felt a decided 
preference, he could not well resist the inclina- 
tion he felt to be governed in the matter by the 
motives of choice exclusively, provided he could 
feel assured that subsequent events, anticipated 
from conscious debility and impotence by reason 
of his own advanced age, could be so controlled 
by medical skill as would obviate all danger of 
disagreement and infelicity between them after 
the marriage ceremony. I gave him the reasons 
of my strong conviction that this could be satis- 
factorily accomplished for him, and he immed- 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 51 

diately subjected himself to the regimen and 
treatment which I imposed. I found in him a 
most submissive and docile patient, who unscru- 
pulously and faithfully followed the directions 
I gave him ; and I had the gratification as well 
as the pleasure of seeing him, in less than three 
months from the time of his first application to 
me, rejoicing in the possession of the woman of 
his choice. He subsequently informed me, with a 
countenance beaming with gratitude and thanks, 
that there was not a happier or a more contented 
couple on the face of the earth ; and he attributed 
to me, and the truly happy effects of the medi- 
cines I had prepared for him, the happiness 
which he then enjoyed. Indeed, I might cite 
other cases equally as interesting, but I do not 
feel at liberty to particularize, lest I might 
wound the sensitiveness of those who have con- 
fided to me, in my professional capacity, those 
matters which I cannot conscientiously nor hon- 
orably refer to, even to encourage and benefit 
others in a similar way. Let every one, how- 
ever, be assured that age no longer forms any 
impediment to an enjoyment of all the physical 
functions of our being, and that wedlock, so far 
from being shunned as a severe and unhappy test 



52 THE gentleman's 

of the virile forces, resulting only in failure and 
mortification, may now be consummated with 
all the assurance, hopefulness, and ardor of 
youth. 

The reader will have observed that in all the 
foregoing pages I have carefully avoided entering 
into details, or giving way to that style of com- 
position which seems almost inseparable from 
the medical profession. I have not, by a prolix 
and confused use of medical and pharmaceutical 
terms, perplexed his mind nor sought to inspire 
an opinion of my skill by an exhibition of pro- 
fessional and technical terms, only understood 
by the regular student and philologist. I have 
rather sought to intimate, in plain and readily 
understood language, matters and subjects upon 
which a great deal of ignorance unfortunately 
prevails. I have sought to point out the dangers 
and perils arising from certain causes which are 
to-day working a vast amount of evil and dis- 
tress throughout the whole country. 

I have also called to your attention the ready 
and certain means of cure which I possess, and 
of which all may avail themselves at a moderate 
expense, without incurring the least danger of 
relapse or exposure. And, finally, I invite you 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 53 

to test an experience of thirty years' successful 
practice, in which I have more sucessfully treated 
every disease to which humanity is liable than any 
other physician in New England. My arrange- 
ments and provisions for this purpose are most 
extensive, and peculiarly adapted to suit and 
please the taste of the most delicate and fastidi- 
ous. My reception rooms are ample, and even 
luxuriously furnished ; and patients, whilst wait- 
ing for, and during consultation, are free from all 
inquisitive observation. My medicines, which are 
all prepared under my own immediate supervi- 
sion, are procured for me by herbalists of rare 
skill, and imported for my exclusive use; and 
whilst I devote every faculty I possess to the 
relief and cure of those who place themselves 
under my care, I am particular, also, to so regu- 
late and apportion the price of my services that 
none, however unfortunate, may be driven away 
by the fear of excessive or exorbitant charges. 
My consultation rooms and medical office are at 
No. 48 Howard Street, Boston, where I may be 
found at all hours during the day, and to which 
all communications for advice and medicines 
should be particularly addressed. 

FREDERICK MORRILL, M. D. 



54 THE GENTLEMAN'S 



APPENDIX. 

I PRESUME that there are many who, on 
opening this book, expected to find a num- 
ber of prescriptions for the cure of diseases; 
also directions for taking the prescribed reme- 
dies, and rules for diet, etc., etc., while taking 
them. Here let me say, that whoever looks for 
that, in any properly-prepared treatise of this 
kind, will always be disappointed. I would 
most cheerfully send prescriptions to sufferers, 
but it would be utterly impracticable, for the 
reason that the roots, herbs, and barks, which I 
use in curing diseases, are imported by myself, 
from foreign countries, for my own practice; 
and very many of them, the most efficacious, 
cannot be obtained from any druggist in this 
country. The reader will readily see that any 
prescription, under such circumstances, would 
be worthless to him. I not only import my 
herbs, barks, roots, and medicinal plants, but I, 
myself, prepare them for use. I do this that I 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 55 

may be sure, beyond all doubt, that my patients 
get the pure article, without any adulteration, 
or any possibility of mistake ; and to this fact I 
attribute, in a great measure, my success in 
treating and curing disease. The concentrated 
form in which I prepare them enables me to 
send them to any part of the country, by mail 
or by express, at trifling expense ; so that there 
would be really no reason for furnishing pre- 
scriptions to my patients, even if they could get 
them compounded by the druggist. 

I have thought that I could not do a better 
service to my readers than to insert, by way of 
an appendix, a selection from the large corres- 
pondence I am daily receiving from persons 
seeking my advice, or such as have been under 
my care. These letters are not only calculated 
to show the embarrassments under which in- 
valids frequently labor in regard to the choice 
of a physician, when seeking to regain lost 
health, but narrating, as they do, actual cases 
attempted to be described by the sufferers them- 
selves, they may enable the reader to compare 
his own with them, and to judge whether he 
may not, with every hope of relief, resort to the 
same means of cure. 



56 THE gentleman's 

Whilst, as a general rule, I usually destroy all 
correspondence of a private nature, especially 
all such as I consider that the writers would 
prefer not to be in danger of a perusal by any 
other than myself, there are cases which I con- 
sider of too interesting a character, and which 
required a degree of care, skill, and attention, 
to perfect a cure, that I have, in the interest of 
humanity, preserved such an outline of them 
as would enable me to refer to, and recall what- 
ever of importance might be connected with 
them, for my future guidance in similar cases. 
In such circumstances, I preserve only trans- 
cripts of all the correspondence, destroying 
the original, whilst I erase all names and other 
means of exposure, of matters which might 
wound the sensibilities of the writers. 

The subjoined letters I have selected because 
they represent, better than I could otherwise do, 
different grades and classes of physical disa- 
bility produced by causes particularly treated 
upon in this book, and which, more than'any 
other class of diseases, I have been called upon 
to treat. From thousands of similar endorse- 
ments of the happy results of my system of 
medical treatment, I am emboldened in claim- 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 57 

ing for it a superiority over all others. The 
living witnesses whom I daily meet and 
recognize as of those who have, in their per- 
sons, experienced the healing and life-preserv- 
ing efficacy of my remedies, and who, from 
being debilitated, broken down, despairing in- 
valids, looking forward to death as the only 
termination of their sufferings, are to-day in 
the enjoyment of all the blessings which health 
can confer, and amongst our most useful, active, 
and enterprising citizens. With such examples 
before them, no one should hesitate or delay a 
single hour in securing to himself the means 
of recovery and restoration which I am fully 
prepared to offer him. 

From the fact that I have, in this little vol- 
ume, called the reader's attention chiefly to those 
disorders arising from an indiscreet and over- 
tasked indulgence of the sexual and procrea- 
tive faculties, some of my readers may be led to 
infer that I limit my practice exclusively to 
them. This would be a mistake. Being a reg- 
ularly-educated physician, my range of practice 
is not restricted to any particular branch of my 
profession, although I have devoted a large 
share of my attention to the investigation and 



58 TIIE gentleman's 

study of the utero-genital organs, under the 
belief that to them might be traced, much 
oftener than is generally supposed, a large share 
of those diseases which annually disables, and 
eventually carries off, so many thousands of our 
most promising and interesting young men. 
Consumption, diseases of the heart and liver, 
rheumatism, imperfections of sight and hearing, 
baldness, and many other complaints intimately 
connected with, and in a large degree owing 
their early development to causes directly re- 
sulting from a too-frequent violation of nature's 
laws in this very thing, are subjects in which I 
feel myself fully justified in recommending my 
remedies, and in which I have been equally 
successful in my treatment, To either sex, 
male or female, requiring medical or surgical 
treatment, I am prepared to offer every facility 
and convenience whilst prescribing for every 
case of disease or accident to which the human 
frame is liable. Medicines carefully prepared 
by myself, neatly and securely packed for trans- 
. portation to any part of the world, with every 
needed direction for their use, as the case may 
require, will be promptly forwarded to such as 
may wish to avail themselves of my professional 
services. 



MTSDICAL ADVISEE. 59 

[Letter from a Gentleman.] 

G , Me, Sept. — 186 

Dr. Frederic Morrill : 

Bear Sir — It is under feelings of the deepest 
despondency and mortification that I address 
you this letter. I have long contemplated doing 
it, but my resolution has failed me whenever I 
have sat down to accomplish it. I am, however, 
reduced to that degree of hopelessness, and, I 
may add, helplessness, that unless I do some- 
thing, and that most speedily, I shall be so com- 
pletely shorn of all energy and manhood as to 
be utterly incapable of making myself under- 
stood by you or any one else. You already, 
I imagine, comprehend the difficulty under 
which I labor. I am now about eighteen years 
of age, and have been, almost since I arrived at 
the age of puberty, addicted to that most horri- 
ble of all soul and body destroying vice, — self- 
abuse. First indulging in the practice at rare 
intervals, it has grown upon me as I have ad- 
vanced in life, inflicting new tortures, and 
throwing open before me vistas of future tor- 
ments, which combine to render the present, 
past, and future, in the endurance and anticipa- 
tion, too terrible to bear or describe. I was led 



60 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

into this vile habit, as all boys are, by bad ex- 
ample and associations with those who, being 
older than myself, ought to have known better. 
I did not then, as I do now, attribute the many 
painful and depressing ills to which I was sub- 
ject, to the physical derangements occasioned 
by this vice. I had, I think, a scrofulous taint, 
inherited from my parents. This became quite 
early developed, and for years I was afflicted 
with a weakness and innamation of the eyes, 
which at times was almost insupportable. Cos- 
tiveness, and constipation also, always rendered 
it necessary that I should be taking some laxa- 
tive and cathartic medicine. When I resorted 
to medical advice, not one of the many physi- 
cians whom I consulted ever made the inquiry 
as to my habits, or suggested the possibility that 
I was paying the penalty of solitary vice. Had 
my occupation or pursuits been such as to afford 
me constant daily labor and exercise in the open 
air, I have no doubt it would have been far 
better for me ; but since my fourteenth year I 
have been a student, either at home or abroad, 
and although I have enjoyed every advantage 
and opportunity, to-day feel myself utterly in- 
competent and incapable of profiting by them. 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 61 

A loss of memory and a lack of energy, in- 
ability to any continuous exercise of the reason- 
ing powers, a want of tenacity of purpose, a 
confusion of ideas, timidity, bashfulness, and a 
constant apprehension of coming evil, so besets 
me that I sometimes wish that I might die to 
escape it. Indeed, I have often thought of 
suicide, and am sometimes seriously tempted to 
resort to it as a relief from my troubles. I have 
read books and treatises upon the subject, and 
have, times without number, resolved, nay, 
sworn, to abandon the practice. But I find to 
my sorrow that I have not got the strength of 
will and purpose to do this. To such a state of 
debility am I reduced that I find I am powerless 
to carry into effect any resolution whatever ; and 
I am at length satisfied that a man left alone, 
unaided, in this condition, is entirely unable, of 
himself, to emerge from the depths into which he 
has fallen. I have hitherto kept this to myself, 
fearing, or rather ashamed, to make a confidant 
of any one. But I can do so no longer. The 
continued drains upon my system, and the very 
foundation of my powers of manhood, have been 
so long continued, that I have become the invol- 
untary victim of all those ruinous consequences 



62 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

which flow from such a cause ; cold night sweats, 
a troublesome cough, a burning and feverish 
skin, disturbed sleep, and dreams too horrid and 
too * * * * to narrate, admonish me, that 
if I do not soon obtain relief, the attempt to do 
so will be too late. I have therefore resolved to 
break through the reserve and moody silence 
behind which I have hitherto shrouded myself, 
and, cost what it may, throw myself into the 
hands of some one in whom I can place confi- 
dence, and submit entirely to his guidance and 
direction until I am either restored to my for- 
mer self or laid at rest in the grave. I have 
heard much of you, of your willingness to un- 
dertake such cases as mine, and the great suc- 
cess which attends your course of practice, and 
the remedies you give. If you think you can 
cure me, consider me as your patient from this 
moment. Not wishing to occupy your time for 

nothing, I enclose dollars for which 

please give me credit, and write to me at once 
what I am to do. 

I am, very respectfully, &c. 

S — W . 

Note. — The reader will clearly perceive from the 
foregoing letter that this was not only a most distressing 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 63 

case, but that, notwithstanding the writer had intended 
to give me such a detailed statement as would enable me 
to prescribe for him directly, yet, on a more careful ex- 
amination, he will see that there was not that circum- 
stantial detail of particulars necessary for my guidance 
in a case of so much importance. Apprised of the un- 
happy young gentleman's inability at that time to visit 
me at my office, I wrote to him some two or three times, 
suggesting topics upon which I desired to be more fully 
informed. In the course of a fortnight I had succeeded 
in perfecting quite a satisfactory diagnosis of his case, 
and immediately put in active operation the course of 
treatment I had marked out. It was not to be expected 
that habits so confirmed, and maladies so aggravated, 
could be at once broken up. Experience had too often 
shown me that this class of patients, however deter- 
mined and resolved they might express themselves to be 
in the beginning, were not always to be relied upon in 
carrying out your views in regard to them, and that not 
unfrequently they defeated your best efforts in their 
behalf, by but a half compliance with your directions. 
A temporary relief, and a slight change for the better, 
would give rise to a presumptuous desire to break 
through the rules you had prescribed for their guidance, 
and before you suspected it, they would complain of the 
want of efficacy of your treatment, and fall back into 
the old line of complaint and despair. 

But I am not in the practice of letting patients foil me 
in my labors to effect their cure, in that way ; and it is 
at the very moment of their greatest discouragement 
that I feel that I am beginning to get them well in hand, 



64 THE gentleman's 

and that, when they find they are passed all hope, except 
through outside help, I am most certain that I have them 
on the sure road to recovery and better days. And so it 
was with this young man. By encouragement and per- 
suasions I soon won his entire confidence, and had the 
satisfaction of witnessing his gradual progress from 
almost total prostration to renewed vigor and health. I 
did not even resort to the expedient of a change of 
residence, nor to his giving up his books. My medical 
treatment was directed towards subduing and soothing 
the nervous irritation which his habits had engendered, 
and to strengthen and give tone to every faculty which 
had felt the debilitating effects of his former indul- 
gencies. From the constancy of my correspondence 
with him, I did not allow the slightest change or symp- 
tom to escape me ; and although I had never seen him, I 
felt as assured of the beneficial changes which were 
taking place as though I had him daily in my presence. 
Gradually the style of his correspondence, as well as 
the steadiness of his hand and eye, indicated by his pen- 
manship, plainly showed the great improvement going 
on, until at length I was surprised by a call from him to 
thank me in person for what I had done for him. 

Let the reader imagine to himself, a hale, portly 
young man, bearing about him every mark of a healthy 
and almost perfected manhood; a frank, open, and in- 
genuous countenance, that shrinks from no scrutiny, and 
a bright, sparkling eye that almost fascinates you by its 
beaming lustre and intelligence, and you have before 
you the patient whose case I have just been describing. 
He was thoroughly cured. Every faculty of both soul 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 65 

and body appeared to be fully adequate to all the 
exigencies of an honorable and successful future, to 
which his means, and his family and social relations, 
would justify him to aspire. I am happy to say that, 
his subsequent career has realized the highest expecta- 
tions I had formed of him. Equally distinguished at the 
bar of his adopted State, as in the national councils, he 
is, at this time, one of the most promising and rising 
men in the country. 

The following letter is from a middle-aged 
gentleman whose early life had been marked by 
misfortunes of no ordinary severity, which had 
preyed upon his health to that extent as to 
occasionally unfit him for all business occupa- 
tions, as also to render Mm incapable of any 
mental enjoyments whatever. Strange as it 
may appear, this gentleman's appearance in- 
dicated in no very marked degree the infirmities 
of which he complained. He was rather pletho- 
ric and full in form, and his countenance was 
more like that of a " bon vivant " than other- 
wise. To one unaccustomed to read the " human 
face divine," he would have been taken for 
almost anybody else than one who was suffering 
under a most complicated form of disease, hav- 
ing its origin in a criminal indulgence so vile 
and sensual as to excite our horror and aversion 



QQ THE GENTLEMAN'S 

towards one, who, in the form of man, could 
surrender himself up to such gross and un- 
natural appetites and desires : 

B — , 1S6 

Dear Sik: 

In the short interview which I had with you, 
yesterday, I perceived that I staggered your 
faith in my truthfulness when I stated to you the 
troubles which oppress me, and which, notwith- 
standing the fair and rosy blush of health I wear, 
renders life almost an unsupportable burden. 
You were correct in your opinion that my case 
was an abnormal one, dependent upon causes 
which required a frank avowal on my part be- 
fore you could venture to prescribe for me. 
Although not particularly troubled with any 
excess of squeamishness in matters of this kind, 
I must confess that I felt reluctant to expose to 
you, verbally, the true character of my mental 
and physical deformities. Did I tell you that I 
was a brute, I should come far short of convey- 
ing to you any just idea of myself. I am a 
brute, embodying every animal instinct, with all 
the reasoning, cunning, planning, and executing 
faculties of the human being in their highest 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 67 

degree and perfection. A native of the south of 
Europe, and inheriting all the hot and fiery in- 
stincts of my race, I have ever sought the 
gratification of every unholy and unlicensed 
passion to which the creature, man, may be en- 
slaved. 

At a very early age, even in my boyhood, I 
broke through every bound of religion, morality, 
and blood itself, to gratify the intense desires 
which overwhelmed me. This ever-consuming 
fire seemed to derive new force and energy 
upon what it fed on, when satiety and disgust 
led me to search out new sources of gratifica- 
tion, until the most unnatural tastes and propen- 
sities took possession of me. Consorting with 
men, and even animals, became far more pre- 
ferable than with the fairest and most enticing 
of the opposite sex ; and I became so addicted 
to it, that I felt myself as, indeed, that " pesti- 
lence which walketh at noon day," as, vampyre 
like, I fattened upon the victims I destroyed. 
These horrible and unnatural gratifications 
seems to have had the effect of blending and 
incorporating their mischievous and deadening 
influence throughout every faculty of my being ; 
shame, morality, and virtue lost their distinctive 



6S THE GENTLEMAN'S 

qualities in my mind, and gluttony, intemper- 
ance, and excess of every kind have usurped 
complete mastery over me. One who knows me 
well has frequently intimated that I must look 
to moral rather than to medical influences to 
change me from what I am. But I knoiv better. 
Moral effort can hold no successful conflict with 
the overwhelming physical clamorings of an 
organization like mine. " A sound mind in a 
sound body," is a maxim of wisdom, but, the 
sound body must come first. Insanity is, I pre- 
sume, the consequence of a diseased brain ; and 
although a diseased brain requires the aid of 
moral forces to its proper readjustment, yet a 
nice and just adaptation of sanitary appliances 
must precede as well as accompany them, to 
render them available. 

Impotency, emasculation, and sterility admits 
of a ready cure at the hands of the skilful physi- 
cian, who, like yourself, has made this branch of 
physiological science his particular study. If 
excitants, tonics, and stimulants promote action 
in the one class of cases, why should not anti- 
phlogistics, anodynes, and kindred remedies 
quench those fires which turn man into a 
demon, and renders life one constant rebellion 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 69 

against everything pure and good. I have great 
faith in you, doctor, hence this disclosure. Are 
you willing to try your skill in this strange case ? 
I will submit to anything, do anything, that I 
may once enjoy the tranquility and self-posses- 
sion of perfectly cool-headed manhood. My 
means are ample, and they are at your disposal ; 
all I ask in return is, that I may be enabled to 
go forth amongst my fellow-men without that 
crushing sense of moral degradation which is 
now more oppressive than any " fearful looking 
for of fiery indignation," in the future, can possi- 
bly be. Any encouragement you can give me 
will materially influence my movements for the 
future, and I will most gladly avail myself of 
your earliest intimation that a call from me 
would be agreeable. 

With great esteem, I am yours, etc. 

L F . 



Note. This gentleman had by no means overstated 
his case. At my suggestion he took apartments in my 
vicinity where I could daily observe his conduct. It 
was clearly evident that his misfortunes were chiefly 
owing to a morbid state of the whole system, similar to 
that which in some persons manifests itself in a ravenous 
appetite, which can only be appeased by devouring 



70 THE GENTLEMAN^ 

enormous quantities of the most indigestible and revolt- 
ing substances for food. I felt satisfied that the case 
was a fair one for medical treatment, and governed my- 
self accordingly. It would be useless for me to attempt 
to describe to the nonprofessional reader the course I 
adopted, and readily submitted to by my patient, to exor- 
cise this " unclean spirit" which possessed him. Suffice 
it to say, that, after an unusual degree of application on 
my part, I had the satisfaction at length of reducing the 
"fair proportions of his ruling passion," until he 
sobered down into a rational human being. Bereft of no 
quality, nor in anywise shorn of his proper manhood, he 
has become a model of regularity, moderation, and of 
all the gentler virtues. His striking manly beauty still 
marks him as a general favorite, whilst those coarser 
features which formerly marred him, have disappeared 
forever. My last letter from him, dated several years 
ago, informed me, that at length he had settled down, re- 
joicing in the society of an amiable companion, and with 
an undisturbed temperament and tranquility of soul which 
promised to compensate him, in part, for the tumultu- 
ous and stormy past. 

I have hesitated long before I could persuade myself 
to give place to the foregoing in these pages. But on 
reflection I felt that, as it was a true record, and repre- 
sented a class by no means rare or uncommon, I would 
not withold it, from any apprehensions of the criticisms 
of the incredulous or narrow-minded. Human nature is 
the same everywhere, beset by the same temptations, and 
destroyed by the same vices ; and the medical man, better 
than all others, knows to what extent the justification 
exists for calling attention to this gentleman's case. 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 71 

[Letter Third.] 

D , 186 

Doctor Morrill, 

Boston, Mass. : 
Dear Sir. — I enclose a gentleman's card, 
with his endorsement upon the back of it, well 
known to you, as my introduction. For some 
months past I have been in search of a skilful 
medical man, whom I might safely consult in a 
matter involving not only my own happiness, but 
the peace, health, and, possibly, the life itself of 
my wife. For several years she has been an in- 
valid. She is now thirty-three years of age, and 
we have been married upwards of twelve years. 
Shortly after the birth of our child, a son of nearly 
eleven years of age, her health began to decline, 
since which time, notwithstanding the many phy- 
sicians to whom she has applied, and the various 
means resorted to for relief, she has continued in 
a state of debility so nearly bordering on down- 
right sickness as to be seldom capable of attend- 
ing to any of the duties, or enjoying any of the 
comforts, much less the pleasures, of society, or 
even of life itself. So repeated has been her fail- 
ures to obtain beneficial medical aid, that, long 
since she gave up all hope of obtaining it at the 



72 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

bands of any of those physicians whom we have 
been in the habit of regarding as our oracles in 
all matters of this kind. She declares herself 
disgusted, and wearied out by this constant suc- 
cession of potions, pills, and powders, tonics, stim- 
ulants, and alteratives, as they are termed, and 
has about made up her mind to resign herself to 
her fate, whatever that may be. This is not so 
much to be wondered at when I inform you that 
there is hardly a physician of any note in the city 
with whom she has not consulted, many of them 
repeatedly, but all of them to little purpose. My 
friend, who so highly recommends you, has en- 
deavored to prevail upon her to consult you ; but 
with a perversity, if not peculiar to her sex, at 
least strongly characteristic of her infirmities, she 
persists in her resolution henceforth to let the 
doctors alone. This all might do very well, if she 
alone was the sufferer. But I, being a party 
quite as much interested as she is, have resolved 
that no efforts shall remain untried to enable her 
to regain her health, and that I may have restored 
to me the society and companionship of a wife to 
whom I am most fondly attached. I cannot see 
her thus, day by day, sinking into a premature 
grave, whilst there remains the least earthly pos- 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 73 

sibility of rescuing her from her present perilous 
condition. I have, therefore, determined to give 
to you, myself, such facts concerning her case as I 
am conversant with ; and as I have been for many 
years past, to a great extent, her principal nurse, 
I am not certain but that I can give you all the 
description necessary to enable you to form a 
pretty just opinion of whom you are to treat, and 
the troubles you are expected to eradicate. Soon 
after the birth of our child my wife's health com- 
menced gradually to give way, and she filled with 
difficulty the offices of a mother, against my re- 
monstrances ; she declined to resign her child to 
other hands during its infancy, and, although no 
immediate consequences were apparent, yet it was 
evident that her physical powers were not equal 
to the burden she assumed. Whatever may have 
been the causes, thenceforward there seemed to 
be a general breaking up and falling to pieces of 
her entire system. Disorders of the womb, 
breasts, and a general weakness of all the genital 
organs indicated but too surely an enfeebled and 
relaxed condition of the system, calling for the 
immediate application of remedial measures of 
some sort. The physician whom I called did not 
seem to understand the case, or, if he did, he 



74 THE gentleman's 

miserably failed in his selection of remedies ; for, 
instead of getting better, her maladies assumed a 
more dangerous and complicated form. She 
ceased to become a mother, and seemed to be be- 
set by all those disorders which call so loudly for 
our sympathy and aid. Labor and exercise or 
any kind become too irksome to be borne, whilst 
headaches, indigestion, pains in the abdomen, 
great susceptibility to atmospheric changes, ex- 
treme irregularity in all the natural functions, 
bleedings, and other discharges, combined to de- 
press her spirits and undermine her strength, until 
she is now but a wreck of her former self. . With 
this wearing away of the physical forces there is 
also a decay of the mental faculties still more dis- 
tressing to witness. She has fever to a consider- 
able degree, yet the absence of the hectic flush of 
the cheek, or cough, or other usual signs of con- 
sumption, leads me to indulge the belief that her 
disease is not consumption in any of its forms. 

Physicians have repeatedly intimated consump- 
tion, spinal disease, or some ovarian complaint, 
and have, in turn, treated her for all these ; and 
yet, the same emaciation, loss of appetite, dis- 
charges of blood and serum, disinclination to ef- 
fort of any kind, and repugnance to all society, 



MEDICAL ADVISER. To 

continues as at first. Were I not afraid to enter- 
tain the thought or pronounce the word, I should 
say that imbecility was the proper term to employ 
as descriptive of the condition to which she ap- 
pears to be now fast tending. She makes less 
complaint than formerly, and manifests less solic- 
itude for her restoration to health ; and I fear there 
are grounds for this in the almost passive state to 
which she is reduced. I wish it were so that I 
could induce her to undergo the journey neces- 
sary to see you. but that is entirely out of the 
question. From what I have written can you 
form any just idea of her disease, and would you 
venture to take her case in hand ? Could you do 
this, doctor, I should consider myself fortunate in 
having secured your services in her behalf. En- 
closed please And a fee, which I trust will be sat- 
isfactory. 

Your early reply will be awaited for with deep 
anxiety, and gratefully appreciated by 

Most respectfully, your obt. serv., 



If the reader has perused this book with any 
degree of attention, and failed to recognize in the 
above description, by her husband, of Mrs. M.'s 



76 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

case, a clear and decided case of self- abuse, then 
I cannot give him credit for ordinary penetration 
and acuteness. 

I introduce this letter, and the case it describes, 
in order to show to the reader a peculiar charac- 
teristic of this propensity, not alone confined to 
females, but shared alike by both sexes. Here 
was a lady who had lived under the same roof, 
shared the same bed, and otherwise cohabited 
with an affectionate, confiding, and devoted hus- 
band for thirteen years ; and yet, all this time, 
had been able to elude his watchfulness to that 
extent as to completely disarm suspicion itself; 
whilst he, hapless husband that he was, in the 
supposition that his wife was the victim of some 
deep-seated and occult disorder, far beyond the 
reach of ordinary skill, and, as it has been shown, 
not even thought of by the many doctors who 
had attended her, was about to surrender her to 
the grave, as past the possibility of cure, never 
dreamed that his wife was simply a masturbation- 
ist, and as such, as lit a subject for medical treat- 
ment as though she was simply affected by catarrh, 
or any other analogous disease. Tis true that she 
had inflicted serious and almost fatal injury upon 
herself; but she was not yet past hope of restora- 



MEDICAL ADVISEE. 77 

tion. The striking feature of the case is the cun- 
ning, secrecy, and deception resorted to by the sub- 
jects of this vice. Strange as may appear, the habit 
seems to sharpen all the faculties of concealment 
and duplicity, whilst it deadens and paralyzes 
every moral sentiment, and leads its votaries to 
deceive and to shun their best friends and most 
intimate associates. Even the prospects of relief 
are disregarded, and the kindest purposes of the 
physician defeated by a concealment and evasion 
rarely resorted to under any other circumstances. 
With this patient neither stratagem nor circumlo- 
cution would be available. My only course was 
to attack her with plainness of speech and direct- 
ness of inquiry. With her husband's permission 
I wrote to her, stating, not my suspicions merely, 
but charging her directly with being addicted to 
solitary vices, and attributing all her maladies and 
sufferings to them alone. Whether she ever 
showed that letter to her husband, is more than I 
can say. But in a short time afterwards I received 
a letter directly from herself, begging me to pre- 
scribe for her, as she was "satisfied that I under- 
stood her case, and would do for her better than 
anyone else." 
Of course I immediately acceded to her re- 



78 THE GENTLEMAN'S 

quest, and, carefully protecting myself against 
any surprises or duplicity on her part, I sub- 
jected her to a rigid and thorough course of 
treatment, both medicinal and hygienic, until, 
both from her own and her husband's state- 
ments, she had completely regained her former 
good health. Subsequently, on becoming per- 
sonally acquainted with her, she informed me 
that, up to that moment, her husband had re- 
mained in entire ignorance of the true cause 
and nature of her complaints ; and she thanked 
me over and over again, not only for the decided 
steps I had taken, but for the discreet, cautious, 
as well as successful manner in which I had 
treated her, and relieved her of all her troubles. 
I might continue, with the materials in my 
possession, to illustrate by letters and testimo- 
nials without number, the great success which 
has ever attended that system of treatment 
which I have adopted in those cases usually 
denominated " delicate," and which forms so 
large a share of those which afflict mankind. 
Notwithstanding the country, and our large 
cities especially, is literally crowded by those 
who make large pretensions to extraordinary 
skill, and style themselves " doctors," whose 
only claim to that distinction is that they are 



MEDICAL ADVISER. 79 

able to keep up a standing advertisement in 
some of our newspapers, but whose real attain- 
ments in medical science can be measured by 
an 0. I hare felt that in the open, liberal, and 
faithful exercise of a specialty made honorable 
by such names as Abercrombie, Hunter, Bell, Ki- 
cord, Acton, and many others whose learned in- 
vestigations and writings upon this subject have 
done so much to benefit mankind, I need not 
fear, nor shrink from being placed on any degree 
in the scale of " professional respectability,-' to 
which my professional brethern may choose to 
assign me. My tribunal is the public at 
large, and by its judgment I am content to 
abide. It has been truly said that " nothing 
succeeds so well as success." Judged by that 
criterion I do not hesitate to compare myself 
with any of my compeers, certain as I am that, 
in point of numbers cared, I excell them all. 

In conclusion, let me say that, although I do 
not consider this book by any means as an adver- 
tising medium, but solely what it claims to be, — 
The Gentleman's Medical Adviser, — 
yet I believe my readers will concur with me in 
the strict propriety of calling attention to the 
great facilities I possess for the care and treat- 
ment of the sick at my extensive establishmen 



80 THE GENTLEMEN'S MEDICAL ADVISER. 

Xo. 48 Howard Street, Boston, Mass. Secluded 
from general observation, in one of the pleasant- 
est streets of the city, with easy access to all pub- 
lic conveyances, and in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of the chief objects of public interest, the Mall, 
the Common, the Public Garden, the Horticultural 
Rooms, the Museum, the Reservoir, and the State 
House, I claim for it advantages of location pos- 
sessed by no other private establishment in the 
city. Good nursing, careful and faithful attend- 
ance, and medical treatment under my own im- 
mediate supervision, with all remedies directly 
from my own laboratory, will ensure to patients 
all that science, art, and skill can offer for their 
comfort and relief. I prefer to confer orally with 
my patients, if possible. But if that be impossi- 
ble, or inconvenient, letters, plainly and distinctly 
written, stating the nature of the disease, the 
age and occupation of the patient, addressed to 
me, containing two dollars, consultation fee, 
will be promptly attended to. In order to avoid 
any mistakes and delay, please address all letters 
as follows:— F. MORRILL, M. D. 

No. 48 Howard Street, 
Boston, Mass. 



The End. 



Pl\. ^ORRILL'S pFFICE, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 062 514 8 




1 



TSTo.48 HOWAH1) sT.' t BOSTON, AfASS. 



